Every day around 9-10 Mumbaikar’s die commuting to work on the city’s rail network. That’s over 3200 wages earning, hardworking, bread winners gone every year - just like that. Nandini Dias says, “We have got so used to 9-10 people dying every day that almost no newspaper or channel even report it these days. And mind you these are people who died. There is an equal if not more people who get injured everyday “.

We need to desperately tame Mumbai’s deadliest killer.

Most offices in Mumbai start at 9.30am in the morning. By rote. Legacy reasons. Just because everyone else’s office also starts at 9.30am. Lotte Bailyn, MIT Professor of Management and Co-Director of the MIT Workplace Center, comments about companies: “Rather than organizing work around the needs of the task, in most companies the work gets organized by means of the cultural expectations surrounding time.

Rail network in Mumbai is the lifeline of most office goers. Unfortunately, the capacity of the transit system and the number of travelers is disproportionate. The transit system is terribly overcrowded. To quantify a 12-rake train can take in roughly 1200 sitting passengers and 2700 standing passengers if filled to capacity. Currently roughly 5300- 5500 travelers travel in each train during rush hour.

Most of us leaders never think or connect that office timings and rush hour can be the deadliest killer. And that we have inadvertently played a role in aiding and abetting this killer. Leaders haven’t paused to think that the stated policies have made people choose options which may not be favourable. The natural reaction is outrage and denial. But it is time to seriously think of our role…

These people travel in overcrowded transit system are simply trying to get to work hurriedly, to reach in time. Most of them risking their lives to beat nothing more than a late mark in the attendance register or a penalty on their salary. To avoid a dressing down.

So, what can you do you may well ask. Well, we can start by being more humane about how we evaluate office attendance without necessarily affecting our productivity.

By opening our minds to WorkToLiveToWork. A radical people’s initiative that aims to make our working hours more flexible and commuting less fatal. By reducing the death defying load on our crumbling infrastructure, lifting workplace morale and giving each one of us the right to choose our lives over our livelihood.

The recommendation is simple. We need to decongest approx. 25% of the people travelling during 8.45- 9.45am the peak rush hour.

WorkToLiveToWork aims to raise awareness among CEO/HR heads/ decision- makers to coax, cajole and convince them to make a simple change. To open-up the irrational rigidity in Mumbai’s office timings. It is pitching for all employees to get the simple right to choose their opening hours between 8-11am. The total work hours for each employee remains the same as per the existing office rules. While sticking to a definite set of common working hours maybe 11am to 4am to ensure smooth functioning and common meeting time.

Nandini Dias says, “It is not as complicated as it sounds. I am urging all companies to come forward and adopt this to save the lives of Mumbaikars. All of us talk of the indomitable spirit of Mumbaikars. What does it mean? Besides expressing outrage do we have the capacity to think beyond ourselves? We are the think tank of the country. The financial capital. Will we just wait for some divine intervention or can we do something to mitigate the crisis.

Let’s all agree that besides expressing outrage we need to help the government in mitigating the crisis. So, whether you are an employer or an employee, think about it, talk about it, bring it up as often as you can to drive change and save lives. Even if we reduce the number of people losing life from 9 to 8 per day we would have saved over 365 lives in a year."